Very often a cleanup tasks involve a need to gather debris into piles or bunches, which are subsequently picked up and disposed of. For example, when a homeowner needs to cleanup a yard during the Fall season, there is a need to gather items such as leaves, twigs, clippings, etc., into piles or bunches. Once formed, a bunch must subsequently be lifted and disposed of—typically using a container or by being bagged.
Importantly, when using a conventional rake or broom during cleanup activities, the step of lifting bunches of gathered debris and placing them within a suitable container, involves the use of a second item or a hand/arm of the user. For example, when gathering leaves that have accumulated in a yard, an individual will often gather the leaves into bunches, and then while bending over, may grasp the leaves by sandwiching them between a rear facing surface of the rake head and the user's hand/arm. Such a process is slow, tedious, and can be quite arduous.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a yard cleanup device, i.e., a rake system, that enables a user to both gather debris and relatively comfortably enable a user to lift the debris into a disposal container—without having to bend over.
The leaf rake is an ancient, relatively simple gardening tool of which there are many varieties with significant differences. Gardeners and landscapers who wish to maintain a well-groomed lawn will regularly cut the grass and will use these standard hand tools to gather loose grass cuttings or clippings, fallen leaves, and other unattached relatively light lawn or yard debris. Although there are alternate and modern solutions to leaf raking and subsequent removal, including leaf blowers, bag-equipped power lawn mowers, or even burning in place, these are usually either noisy, comparatively expensive, unsafe, or environmentally suspect and thus the traditional, though laborious, lawn-raking task is still in wide use.
A typical leaf rake has a straight, cylindrical, elongated, inflexible, either metallic, hard plastic or wooden handle, that is attached to a fan-type rake head usually consisting of a polypropylene or metallic plurality of teeth or tines that are inwardly curved at their edges. Although raking itself can be a difficult task due the upper body strength requirement, after the leaves are raked and gathered into piles, they still require pick up and removal. Conventional leaf rakes are well suited to raking leaves into piles, but they are generally not designed for lifting capabilities. Because of the necessary leverage for picking up and transporting the raked material, this task is usually the most difficult aspect of this largely seasonal activity and generally requires alternating use of separate pick up implements, such as a shovel and yard broom. If the proper tools are unavailable, leaf and debris pick up may involve bending over, kneeling, or stooping, then gathering and pressing the leaves or other raked material with one hand, against the rake head and tines held by the other hand.
Although those skilled in the prior art will be aware of multi-purpose rake combination devices and rake attachments, such as a rake and shovel combination, or an all-in-one pick-up rake that uses two oppositely directed rake heads for grabbing leaves and debris, and facilitating the leaf pick up task, are generally of cumbersome design, requiring costly, complex and bulky additions to the conventional rake. Furthermore, such combination rakes and rake attachments are generally not intended to accommodate complete separation into independent rakes so that two individuals may rake simultaneously and complete the task within a shorter period.
A number of U.S. patents have been granted on leaf pickup rakes. A representative sample of these U.S. patents are as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 7,363,755 to Caneba describes a tool for gathering and picking material having two rake heads and handle units arranged side by side with both rake heads arranged in substantially the same plane for raking. The units are temporarily held in this position by several fasteners along the length of the units. One version is joined at a pivoting joint that allows each of the units to separately pivot about its own longitudinal axis so that their undersides are substantially facing each other and to swing opposite each other for picking up debris. Another version allows both units to be completely disconnected when in the pick-up mode.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,168,230 to Waddell describes an apparatus for gathering, picking up and carrying loose materials that consists of two grasping elements which each have shafts with grasping devices or heads at one end, and a coupling which joins their shafts. The coupling is flexible and can be moved along the shafts of the grasping elements to change the manner in which the elements function together.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,904,743 to Vodinh describes a device for combining two rakes to provide a combination raking and picking up apparatus that comprises a pair of sleeves pivotally attached to one another by connecting sleeves. The sleeves allows the rakes to rotate at least 180 degrees with respect to each other allowing the apparatus to be used for raking lawn debris and picking up debris.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,901,733 to DeSanti describes a debris gathering and pickup tool. The tool includes a gathering portion and a grasping portion. The gathering portion includes a flattened gathering head, an elongated handle, and a coupling arrangement for coupling the gathering head to the elongated handle at a pre-selected downward angle. Similarly, the grasping portion may include a flattened grasping member, a user operated grasping sleeve, and a second coupling arrangement establishing a downward angle between the grasping member and the grasping sleeve. The gathering portion is further structured for being slidably coupled to the gathering portion, such that the user may selectively move the grasping portion between a retracted position and a grasping position, as needed for cleanup activities.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,886,319 to Nam describes a folding rake that includes a first rake and a second rake that are releasably restrained relative to each other in a rake position and may be released and moved into a folded position. In the rake position the first and second handle portions are generally axially aligned. In the folded position the rake heads are generally adjacent to each other.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,502,381 to Crites describes a pick-up rake that has an elongate handle attached to a rake head. The rake head is pivotally attached to a grasping element that may be pivoted from a stored positioned to a closed position, the rake head remaining in contact with the ground while the grasping element moves from the stored to the closed positions. A slider element and rod cooperate to enable a user to clamp the grasping element against the rake head, thereby grasping debris therebetween and facilitating removal of the debris.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,314 to Crevier describes a rake having grasping features, the rake including and elongated and tubular rake handle. A main rake head is attached to the handle and an auxiliary rake head is pivotally attached spring biased to the main rake head by an auxiliary head hinge.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,073 to Jones describes a device for gathering and lifting leaves that utilizes a specially designed pair of leaf scoops that are pivotally secured to each other in opposing orientation via their handles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,540 to Vella describes a garden tool that includes a rake and a shovel rake for picking up and placing debris into a transport container.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,988 to Glaser describes a quick connect rake system that includes two rakes or similar yard tools pivoted together by a quick-connect tube system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,266 to Laughlin describes a pair of rakes each having an array of tines joined to a handle and the upper end of the handles pivotally connecting the handles for rotation with inside portions of said arrays of tines opposing each other. Preferably, rotation about the pivot extends approximately 180° from a fully opened condition in which the handle of each rake abuts an outer portion of the array of tines of the other rake to a fully closed condition in which an inner surface of each array of tines abuts an inner surface of the other array of tines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,189 to Nelson describes an attachment to a conventional rake having a grasping head pivotally attached to a link which is pivotally attached to the rake head such that an operable clamp is formed, the grasping head being operated by a lever attached to the rake's handle. The pivotal link separates the upper portions of the two heads such that the capacity of the “grasp” is greater than that of conventional rakes with grasping apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,794 to Gascon describes a pick-up rake having a main rake head and an auxiliary rake head movably mounted to each other enable the rake heads to cooperatively act to grasp leaves and grass and the like.
US 2005/0016153 to Baker describes an attachment adapted to be connected to a rake adapted to cooperate with the rake head to provide an enclosure for picking up debris.
US 2007/0084178 to Stevens describes a leaf pickup tool having a stationary rake head and a movable rake head pivotally mounted to the stationary rake head with movement controlled by a spring handle slidably mounted to the rod and connected to the movable rake head by a rigid member.
U.S. D384865 to Baran and D506,112 to Roberson show tongs for picking up backyard debris.
Disclosed herein is an improved rake system that is biomechanically easy to use, can be adjusted to provide different tensions of pivoting, has a controlled arc of separation, can be locked in a single (opened or closed) position, particularly holding the tines in an intertwined position for storage of the rake, and if required can be easily separated into two functional rakes.